'Shark Tank' star Daymond John: Google and robots are taking your jobs, not immigrants
"Shark Tank" investor and founder of the $6 billion clothing brand Fubu Daymond John says the biggest threat to jobs in America are Google and robots.
Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Tuesday, the investor calls the threat imminent.
"Robots are going to take it over. By 2030, robots are going to be able to teach us everything 10 times faster, absolutely," says John. "This is a challenge that is going to come in the next 10 years."
In particular, those workers who operate heavy machinery or who drive trucks or cars will be replaced by improved technology, he says. "You are not going to be an Uber driver in five or six, seven years from now," says John.
Similarly, receptionists and executive assistants are being replaced by automated services.
"Immigration is not taking our jobs. Last time I called the operator, it was Google that took her job."
John's viewpoint is backed up by an often-cited 2013 study by Oxford University's Carl Frey and Michael Osborne which estimates that 47 percent of U.S. jobs will be replaced by robots and automated technology in the next 10 to twenty years. Yet Americans remain mostly optimistic, at least when it comes to their own jobs: They tend to think that robots are going to take over for everybody else — just not them.
The way to deal with the new reality, John says, is to train workers in technical skills. Often, retraining doesn't require a four-year college degree, either.
"Please go to college if you are going to be a doctor because I need you to have some kind of skill before you cut me open," says John. "But other than that, if you are going to be automating cars, you are going to be converting social media or you are going to be operating cameras and drones such as that, you better learn that.
"And you can probably learn that skill gap in a year."
See also:
Elon Musk: Robots will take your jobs, government will have to pay your wage
Americans believe robots will take everyone else's job, but theirs will be safe
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates think it's 'crazy' to view job-stealing robots as bad
Disclaimer: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."